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"New state, new job, long commute. BGG is my link to the gaming community until my schedule lets me get involved here."
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Eric Francis (squirrelhenge)

So I recently published the 2016 DGA Awards and got to thinking: “Will people just take my advice and go out and buy the games I listed without any thought to whether or not they’d be a good fit for their family?” Experienced gamers who know their way around the board, I figured, would be OK in that regard. Newcomers, on the other hand, may be a bit overwhelmed by the games I had listed should they rush out to buy them. To that end, I came up with a short list of games that I feel would be idea for beginners to play. There’s more out there, obviously, but the below should get you started.

2016 has been the year of hell with regards to my personal well-being. I know, I know…I shouldn’t be starting articles like this on such a positive note, but I’m a rebel that way. For those of you who forget that I have a semi-updated news feed, I’ve been rather sick as of late. It all started around November/December of last year…costochondritis, GERD, hiatus hernia, a rare inflammation in the throat that makes it swell, having my wisdom teeth pulled, and a bunch of ER visits. The fun is STILL on-going, huzzah! As such I really haven’t played a lot of board games, though I have now produced over 4,000 videos on my YouTube channel. While I didn’t get to play as many tabletop games as I would have liked, I have received a number of excellent games this year that are definitely in the below list. Like last year, I’ll be listing ANY game that I own regardless of release date.

Standard disclaimers apply:

This is not a “best of” list. You can’t claim something is the best if you haven’t tried every other product like it on the market. These are my favorite games at this point in time, labeled as a top ten with honorable mentions. I did try to weigh the more recent games a bit more heavily as it wouldn’t be fun to see the same ten games on the list every year. That really stinks, because there are so many awesome games out there that I want to mention! Go check out the previous years’ DGA Awards for more games that I REALLY like, as well as my written reviews & YouTube playlists to see all the games that I own.

2015 has been a pretty good year for DGA. My YouTube channel has reached 9,000+ subscribers and contains over 2,500 videos, a far cry from last year’s numbers. While being diligent with my content is part of the reason the numbers continue to grow, it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of gamers like you. It also helps that there are a TON of awesome games out there just waiting for someone to discover and play them. Yes, it’s that time of year again folks…the 2015 DGA Awards are upon us!

Like the previous years, I’ll be listing my favorite games regardless of their release date. It just wouldn’t be fair to list the “Best Games of 2015” or the “Best Games of All Time” when I haven’t played them all. DGA just isn’t popular enough for that yet and I receive maybe fifty to seventy-five board games every year, which doesn’t put a dent in the total amount of games published in said year. As such, I find those kinds of titles misleading despite their obvious SEO benefits. All of the games listed below are games that I own. It doesn’t mean that they are the best…it means they are my favorite out of all of the games in my collection at this point in time. It’s important to remember that before leaving a comment like, “but you forgot about X”.

For a list of the games I do own and have played, click on either the “Board Games” or “Video Games” tabs above. I’ve covered many video games on my YouTube Channel that I haven’t here, so go check that out too. It just became more convenient to release video game content via “let’s plays” due to the sheer volume of press copies I get. Each board game entry will have a link to the written article, which in turn contains Amazon and other links for buying the game for yourself. Each video game entry will have a link to one of the videos published to my YouTube channel (which usually has a link to its Steam page). Hopefully the below will give you some ideas for your upcoming holiday shopping…no need to thank me, I’m awesome that way.

The gaming industry continues to surprise me with each passing day. More and more creative people are stepping forward and bringing forth their ideas in the hopes of being able to share them with gamer families and friends all over the world. Don’t believe me? Go check out crowdfunding sites like “Kickstarter” and take a gander at how many games have made it through “Early Access” programs on digital distribution sites like “Steam“. The number of games that have successfully made their way to an official release / retail distribution with the help of the general public is staggering. On one hand, it pains me to think about how many games wouldn’t have seen the light of day had crowdfunding / early access programs not existed. On the other, it makes me feel good to know that so many people share my love for gaming. Needless to say, tabletop gaming and video gaming are two concepts that won’t be dying out any time soon…quite the contrary, it seems.

DGA has seen a lot of changes in 2014 and as such, I’m going to deviate from last year’s format a bit. For one, I’ve only included board games in the DGA Awards, an oversight I intend to correct starting today. I grew up with video games dating back to “Pong” and the “Atari 2600″…it would be a crime in the extreme not to tribute and recognize video games that I absolutely can’t put down. After all, I do have close to 1,500 videos on my YouTube Channel. On another note, my primary focus this year has been covering games on “Kickstarter” (board games) and Steam’s “Early Access” program (video games). I’ll be including a section for these games too, though it’s important to stress that the builds I played are prototypes and may not actually be out on the market yet due to various reasons.

Before we move onto the awards, there is one final thing I’d like to address. I often see other sites listing “The Best Games of X” or “The Best Games of All Time”…this personally irks the hell out of me. The ONLY way you can claim that something is “The Best” or “The Best of All Time” is by playing EVERYTHING ELSE out on the market. Unless you own a DeLorean equipped with a flux capacitor and can devote twenty plus hours a day to gaming, I can guarantee that personally trying out games under that “everything else” category would be impossible. As a father who works full-time, I can barely scrounge up a few hours a day to cover and publish the content I do now. I don’t find it very fair to mark or label something as “The Best” if you haven’t sampled all of its competition…it’s just a false and misleading statement.

Along those lines, I’ll be opting to do what I did the last two years: list the most noteworthy games that I own and have played (regardless of release date) in 2014. Perhaps once DGA gets a little bigger (I’m currently the only one manning the wheel), I’ll be able to break things down by release date and category. As it stands, I simply don’t play enough games to justify going along with the trend…besides, I’ve found simple to be best anyway. For a full list of the games I do own and have played, click on either the “Board Games” or “Video Games” tabs above. There are a few games I’ve covered on my YouTube Channel that I haven’t here, so go check that out too. Each entry will have a link to the written article, which in turn contains Amazon and other links for buying the game for yourself. Hopefully the below will give you some ideas for your upcoming holiday shopping…no need to thank me, I’m awesome that way.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t do anything special for International TableTop Day, which was held on April 5, 2014. So, I did the only thing a respectable (ha!) games journalist would do…grab my camera and head down to Game Masters, a local gaming / hobby shop located in Pittsburgh. I’m not much of a people person and I had never before gone to an event of this scale, but I was determined to walk away with a story to write about. It turned out that I was gifted with much more…the feeling of comradery. We were all there for a reason: we enjoy tabletop gaming. It was great to meet such fine people and I hope to run into all of them again in the future.

To sum up my experience, we played various games including but not limited to: “Family Business”, “Ticket to Ride: Europe”, “Pandemic”, “Rampage”, “Zombicide”, “7 Wonders”, “Pathfinder”, and “Love Letter”. I myself participated in “Family Business”, a game that I had never played before but somehow still ended up winning…I think the group was intimidated by my camera (yeah, let’s go with that). In all serious though, special thanks to Jason, Charity, Barry, Joseph, and Kaleem for being so patient with my questions. I enjoyed the game so much that I ended up purchasing a copy through Amazon, so expect a review sometime over the next few weeks.

The two videos featured below cover both Game Masters and the games played there. “Part One” features an interview with Mr. Phil Glotfelty himself, while “Part Two” is a quick slide show showing off the event. I again want to extend a warm thank you to everyone there who helped to make my experience a positive one. I didn’t manage to catch everyone’s name or include everyone in my slide show, so apologies in advance if I missed you. Please feel free to contact me if you’d like any information on Game Masters or the games featured in this article. Enjoy!

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To see the pictures taken without having to view the slideshow video below, head on over to my Facebook page and check out the related photo album:

It’s that time of year again…at least in our household. With last year’s DGA Awards being an overall success, we decided to sit down again this year to hash out our favorite board games of 2013. Like last year, it’s important to stress that Dad’s Gaming Addiction is a quote unquote “small, one-man show” that simply doesn’t have access to all of the games released in 2013…both my closet and girlfriend seem to appreciate this fact, even if I don’t. As such, we’ll be listing only the games that we own and played throughout the year.

My apologies for the cutoff date being two months before the end of the year, but I wanted to release this article early so that folks had a few ideas for the upcoming Christmas holiday…something that the majority of my friends and I celebrate. If any of the games listed below sound interesting to you, please feel free to check out the review (simply click the link) to get more information on how they play.

If you are a developer / publisher and see your game listed below, feel free to use the awards listed at the very end of this article. I’m admittedly better at writing than I am at graphic design, so I won’t take offense if you thumb your nose up at them. Still, considering I was using PowerPoint, I think they didn’t turn out THAT bad. As always, a big thank you to both my readers and business contacts alike for helping to make this website possible. Most importantly, special thanks need to be extended to “Dad’s Review Crew” for all of their hard work and support.

Last year, I filled this space with what I thought to be the most educational games in my collection. This year, I’m going to try something a little different. While each of us have games that we personally enjoy, I found myself reflecting on the times where we had the most fun. Did we have more fun playing educational games? How about war games? Strategy games?

It turns out that cooperative games, through and through, won that contest. It makes sense in a way…team building and noncompetitive environments are often more fun for all involved, especially where kids are concerned. To that end, the following is a list of our favorite cooperative games.

Once again, we’ll be listing only the games that we own and played throughout the year.

My regular readers know by now that I include the kids in my board game reviews whenever I can. While it is true that they help me to see the games I review in a different light, they also provide you parents out there with ideas for that next birthday gift (or what have you). Most important of all, I include them because we enjoy the process of playing and reviewing games together.

So, what are the DGA Awards? Put simply, they are awards that honor games that we felt were a cut above the rest. It should be noted that we only chose from the games that we own and actually played in 2012…still, choosing from over a hundred games was no easy task.

Why am I doing the awards in September / October, you ask? Well, I decided to help out my fellow parents by giving them time to review these lists, do the research, and order what they liked in time for the Christmas holiday season…something a lot of us celebrate here in the States toward the end of the year. Don’t worry, I conveniently included a review link to each game that was mentioned and most of those reviews include an Amazon link. You’re welcome!

As an added bonus for you parents out there, I included a list of games in my collection that I thought were the most educational and why. Parents and teachers…take notes!

10. Tetris Link - Tetris is a great way to hone one’s ability to envision things in their mind. Players are forced to picture where their piece would end up after dropping it and then must figure out how to expand on their network while stopping others from doing the same. Blokus is similar to Tetris and encourages players to think ahead and make use of the space that they have available. Ticket to Ride, while it doesn’t involve puzzle pieces, is also a game that forces players to plan ahead in regards to their respective networks.

9. Pandemic - While this game doesn’t teach you about viruses or anything medical related, it teaches players how to work together as a team. Other cooperative games similar to this (and good alternatives if Pandemic isn’t available) are: Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Star Trek Expeditions, Castle Panic, and Forbidden Island.

8. Komodo - The educational value from this game lies from both the tile laying mechanic and the manual itself, which the latter features a section labeled “About the Animals.” Players will be figuring out how best to place tiles to house all sorts of different animals all the while learning about them. It has a great “save the animals” theme.

7. Got It! - Ah, numbers! This is a great game for kids to practice their math, either alone or in groups. It covers addition, subtraction, multiplication, order of operations, and more.

6. Word on the Street - It’s tug of war, but with letters! Both sides will be pulling letters back and forth as they come up with words that fit a particular category. This game is great for honing both vocabulary and spelling.

5. Jumbulaya - It’s sort of like Scrabble and Upwords, but on steroids. Players will be forming words by placing new letters on the board, swapping out letters, rearranging letters, or combinations thereof. Players are encouraged to form words that would be hard for their opponent to change…a good exercise in wordplay, overall.

4. You’ve Been Sentenced! - If there’s one thing today that bothers the heck out of me, it is how often people form sentences as if they were texting on their cell phone. This particular game is great for teaching kids proper sentence structure. Since the cards are random, they’ll also need to make do with the words that they’ve been given.

3. Clue: The Great Museum Caper - This game is older and hard to find, but it’s an excellent test of a player’s ability to deduce where the thief may be at any point in the game. The player playing the thief must time their moves with how the other players are moving about…it’s an overall excellent deduction game. Good alternatives are Clue: The Classic Edition, Mr. Jack in New York, and Scotland Yard.

2. Ingenious - Another brain bender. While some people may see it as just matching as many colored shapes as you can in a row, the final scoring mechanic makes this concept a lot more interesting. A player’s final score is determined by the colored shape that they have the least points for…so there’s a bit of strategy and thinking ahead involved in advancing all of your colored shapes along your scoring track as equally as possible.

1. Chess - I might be biased because I used to be a member of the United States Chess Federation, but I seriously consider this to be an excellent game for people of all ages. It hones critical thinking skills…that is…”if I do this, then that happens.” That concept encourages players to think ahead and make the least amount of mistakes in order to win. Good alternatives to this game that promote critical thinking are Hive (Carbon Edition) and Khet.